The Twentieth Annual International Music and Technology Conference and Workshop at IUPUI opened with a striking overview of the evolution of digital sound technology by one of its founding fathers, Dr. G. David Peters, Professor and Head of Graduate Studies in the department of Music and Technology Arts at IUPUI. His presentation introduced students and on-line participants to his world of telematic tools, intermedia applications and digital music expertise.
The conference presented new and emerging technologies with workshops that explored new font software for scoring music by ChordSymbol2, the work of a 5-year computer based piano pedagogy research team from the University of Ottawa, and the latest advancement in sound proofing from Auralex. Some of the more engaging elements of the conference were Georgia Tech’s New Musical Instruments Competition, an iPad demonstration by Dr. Tim Brimmer from Butler University and a hands-on iPhone application build by Chuiyuan Meng. Participants also had the opportunity to construct a personal website using Flash and Dreamweaver software led by Richard Walker and Eric Skull. Other impressive features were the presentations by IUPUI professor Dr. Scott Deal respecting the highlights and challenges of IUPUI’s Intermedia Festival, Jordan Munson’s laptop orchestra, CEnsR, and Dr. Michael Drew’s demonstration of Max-MSP Jitter.
An overarching theme of the conference was established by Dr. Fred J. Rees, Professor and Department Chair, he facetiously dismissed the piano, the semi-tone and traditional music study with his challenge, “Where are the new instruments? Who will play them? Where is the new music? How will we learn to play it?” To this, his tone was serious. The conference provided some clues.
The New Instruments
There is no shortage of innovative instruments or inventors. There is a shortage of people who will take up a new instrument, learn to play it to the point of virtuosity and compose the music that ensures its longevity. Therein lies the problem of new instruments. Happily, there seems to be an exception to this rule and that exception is Max-MSP Jitter. Max is not new. It’s been around for twenty years but compared to the centuries old piano, Max is the l’enfant terrible with a legitimate French pedigree. Max isn’t concerned with the semi-tone, grand staff, or traditional music structures. The Max patcher opens to the user as a blank slate full of thoroughly unique possibilities. After working through some basic tutorials myself, my bets are set on Max MSP Jitter or collectively, Max 5 to be a major player with true longevity as a new instrument with its own army of virtuosos and a contemporary music library. The following is my case for the future of Max 5.
Max 5
San Francisco software company, Cycling ’74 is the current home to Max 5. The company website gives this description: (http://cycling74.com/products)
“An interactive programming environment for music, audio and media. Max is the graphical programming environment that provides user interface, timing, communications, and MIDI support. MSP adds on real-time audio synthesis and DSP, and Jitter extends Max with video and matrix processing.”
Max 5 gives the artist the tools to create the controllers, sound and video performance. It allows a true intermedia experience crucial for a new musical instrument to acquire longevity in our new-media saturated culture. Max 5 is designed to exist within an instrument that we already own, our personal computer. Much of the language we already know. Could this be the new artistic voice of the people like folk music in the early 1900’s? A contemporary hybrid of individualistic computer generated music coupled with personal audio and visual field recording data? Is Max for everyone? Let’s consider its history and complexities.
Max
In 1988 the Max software program was created as an interface for real-time processing of interactions between computer and performer at the Institute for Research and Coordination Acoustic Music located in France. IRCAM is committed to scientific research and musical expression. It’s within this atmosphere of mash-up technology and artistry that Miller Puckette wrote the first Max patcher editor for Macintosh. It synced the computer to the piano and was first used in a piano piece called Pluton composed by IRCAM resident and researcher Philippe Manoury (philippemanoury.com). The software was named after Max Matthews who in 1957 designed the first computer music program entitled MUSIC. David Zicarelli developed a commercial version of Max in 1989 and by 1999 his company Cycling ’74 became the Max distributor. Using Max requires familiarity with its building blocks and data flow model. The software comes with extensive tutorials. The following is an example of a simple Max patch and its components designed to introduce the new user to the basic elements of Max’s object, message and comment boxes.
Once familiar with how to manipulate these simple components and how they interact, one can celebrate the mastery of the step one tutorial and look forward to 42 more opportunities to celebrate before mastering Max! In a word, it is complex.
MSP
In 1996 Miller Puckette released a software program called Pure Data or PD. This open-source software heavily influenced the Max add-on MSP. The groundbreaking MSP became available for Max in 1997. Prior to MSP, Max users could manipulate and control samplers and multi-synthesizers via midi. With MSP, Max users had the ability to build their own unique instruments within their computers using 170 Max objects to perform the audio signal processing. The MSP tutorials come in 41 sections preceded by a 4-part introduction. The celebrations of complexity continue! Here is an example of MSP’s simplest possible network:
Jitter
Real-time video control and visual processing were next on the agenda for developers. Nato by Nezvanova and Soft VNS by David Rokeby were early offerings but by 2003 Cycling ’74 released Jitter complete with real-time video control, 3-D options and matrix processing. The following is a Jitter patch from the first tutorial:
Jitter comes complete with a 2-part introduction, 53 tutorials, Appendices A-D and a bibliography! Cheers.
Cult of Max 5
Max 5, the comprehensive upgrade to this trio was released in 2008 (createdigitalmusic.com). To tackle this wealth of new edge technology and master the Max 5, one must claim and conquer 136 tutorials, 6 introductions and 4 appendices. Who in their right mind would take on this task and to what end? Apparently there is no shortage of artists, voyeurs and/or musicians up to the Max challenge. A Youtube search of Max MSP returns a mass of Max media. Devotees share tutorials, personal projects, live performances, patchers, workshop dates and tips. Most of these Youtube entries carry well over one thousand plays and many have hundreds of thousands. A Max cult has grown out of the electronic and experimental music community. But for Max 5 and its future incarnations to find solid footing on the eternal stage of enduring musical instruments it must have its virtuosos and its own library of music that will stand the test of time.
Max the Innovator
There is a broad range of artists and performers using Max to elevate their artistry to levels that set them apart from tradition and the status quo. Pamela Z incorporates Max in her live performances and recordings. She is a dynamic multi-media artist, celebrated composer and recipient of the ASCAP Music Award.
“Since the early 1980s, I have been making works for voice with real-time electronic processing. During an artist residency in 1999, I slowly began the process of porting all the functions of this out-board gear into Max MSP (Z. P., 2008.”)
Her music speaks to audiophiles, performance artists, poets, musicians and enthusiasts of experimentation. She continually adds to the library of contemporary music that is created with Max. Pamela Z is using her artistic license and Max 5 to alter expectations of music and performance but what about Max and the general public?
Chart Topping Max
Initially, Max may seem dense and sonically obscure with its music based in bangs, integers and floating-point numbers. The user must enjoy programming and be comfortable with “controlling” the random and numerical nature of the software. It seems the instrument is created for the rare “control freak” that can embrace both Chaos Theory and something akin to John Cage’s Chance Music. Perhaps it is exactly these esoteric qualities that have drawn not only the most ingenious musicians of our time but also some of the most successful. Radio Head incorporated Max in the production of their multi-platinum, release Kid A. Kid A was released in 2000 and won a Grammy for Best Alternative Album. It reached number one on the Billboard Charts in the UK and number two in the US. Even more impressive is the fact that 10 years later, Kid A charted again at the 100 spot (Billboard.com 2006). Radio Head guitarist Jonny Greenwood shared his thoughts on Max with Ateaseweb.com:
“Max/MSP… suits my chaotic, wire-filled constructions. Lots have half-finished ideas embedded in them, which aren’t used, and they’ve a tendency to crash during concerts. But I love it all: I could fill pages with obsessive stuff about Max/MSP. I’ve even started lurking in chat rooms, and idolizing shadowy figures like jhno and Karlheinz Essl…
…With our last record, there was not time for programming in the studio, so every patch had to be written and working before we started. We had a corner of the studio set up for Max/MSP stuff, and it was all done in real time as we recorded. Part of the band, rather than one person with a computer and four people watching, as tended to happen with previous records. It’s also becoming more and more important at our concerts.”
Aphex Twin a.k.a. Richard James a.k.a. super-genius to aficionados of electronic music also has a healthy relationship with both Max and the Billboard Charts. With eight songs breaking into the Billboard top 200 or Electronica Charts (Billboard.com, 2003), Apex Twin is contributing to the enduring musical catalogue of songs composed using Max MSP.
Future Max
Cycling ’74’s passion to grow Max as the ultimate tool for innovative audio-visual artistry shows in their commitment to user education, outreach and support, interactive website and product line and the API interface that allows third party development of compatible external objects. The website offers a world map for locating current workshops and classes. Workshops run often and everywhere from Iowa to Chile. The company offers on-site and video tutorials. The website is highly supportive of user posted content. With the future in mind, Cycling ’74 recently began offering workshops in its San Francisco office specifically designed for high school students ages 15-18. I would venture that not one parent will ever have to say, “It’s time to practice your MAX!” Another remarkable permutation, unique to a software development company is the concept of C74. C74 is Cycling 74’s own music label. It is prominently featured on their website and ensures the best of its users fruits are presented and circulated. C74 is taking progressive steps to ensure the growth of the Max music library into the future and foster its intellectual elegance vs. hacker cool persona. That is why I believe Max will be the new artistic voice of the people. Max will be the new instrument. In the years to come I prophesize my grandchildren will be totally Maxed-out.
References:
Cycling ’74. (2010). Products. Retrieved from http://cycling74.com/products/
Manoury, P. (2008, September) Autobiographical Elements, Retrieved from http://www.philippemanoury.com/?p=4111
Manoury, P. (N.D.).Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Manoury
Institute for Research and Coordination of Acoustic Music (2010). Retrieved from http://www.ircam.fr/www_ircam.html?&L=1
Kirn, P. (2007).Cycling’ 74 Releases Max 5 Details. Retrieved from http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/09/28/cycling-74-releases-max-5-details-bringing-max-out-of-the-80s
Z, P. Pamela Z Max/MSP Work (2008). Retrieved from http://www.harvestworks.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=159:z&catid=26
Greenwood, J. (2004, May 22). Jonny Interview [interview with Computer Music Journal] Retrieved from http://www.ateaseweb.com/2004/05/22/jonny-interview-in-computer-music-journal/
Radio Head, Kid A (2006). Billboard 200, Retrieved from http://www.billboard.com/#/album/radiohead/kid-a/446322
Aphex Twin (2003). Billboard 200, Retrieved from http://www.billboard.com/#/artist/aphex-twin/35344
Agora Festival, (June 2010). Retrieved from http://agora2010.ircam.fr
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